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What’s the Most Important Search Factor in 2013 According to Matt Cutts and Duane Forrestor?

What’s the Most Important Search Factor in 2013 According to Matt Cutts and Duane Forrestor?

Recently Matt Cutts (Head of Google’s Webspam Team) and Duane Forrestor (Sr. Product Manager – Webmaster Outreach at Bing) were asked during a panel discussion about the most important search factors for 2013.

Here are 5 key takeaways from their answers that you need to know for your website.

1. Mobile is on the verge of massive growth.

Duane Forrestor cites that mobile is critical as mobile devices are expected to almost triple in the next several years – from 9 billion devices to 25 billion devices. This makes mobile the most important area that is highly actionable.

2. How your website looks like on a mobile device matters … a lot.

Matt Cutts also answered that you better start thinking about what your website looks on mobile devices if you haven’t already.

3. Mobile is more important than social.

Finally, Matt Cutts added that even though social is highly talked about right now but mobile will be important in years to come. It’s hard to know if he is implying that the importance of social will decrease but from his comments we can infer that if you invest in your mobile website now your dollars will not go to waste.

4. You can still get a head start with mobile design.

Duane Forrestor reminds everyone that Bing “follows what the consumers want” … just like Google has been emphasizing user experience is the most important thing to pursue in search engine optimization. Forrestor says that only 4% of sites have implemented responsive mobile design that detects when a user is using a mobile device and shows a website that displays properly and is functionally satisfying. This means that you can still get ahead of your competition in adopting mobile responsive web design.

5. Use Google Analytics to track your mobile traffic growth.

You can use your Google Analytics traffic to see how many visitors are on a desktop PC, on a mobile device and on a tablet. You can also track what type of devices visitors are using, the screen size, service provider and operating system. If you have not set up Google Analytics for your website you are missing out on crucial insights to growing your website.

Read more of Cutts and Forrestor’s answers to this question and others from the panel discussion titled “What’s Needed for SEO Success In 2013 & Beyond” in the article written by Brafton.